(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an association dictionary creation apparatus that creates an association dictionary storing the association between words in the information stored in a database.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Examples of conventionally known methods for creating an association dictionary used for searching a database include: to manually determine the relationship between words in the information in a database to create an association dictionary; and to automatically create an association dictionary by using occurrence frequency information for all the words in an electronic document. In addition, a document processing apparatus has been disclosed in which in order to create an association dictionary for each field, the user inputs a search criterion and an association dictionary for the document matching the inputted criterion is created, whereby an association dictionary fit for the field indicated by the search criterion can be created (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H10-134075). Moreover, an association dictionary creation apparatus has been disclosed in which in order to meet individual needs, the degree of association between the search keyword inputted by the user and an associated word selected by the user from among a plurality of associated word candidates corresponding thereto is increased, whereby an association dictionary adapted to the user can be created (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-348042).
However, with the conventional document processing apparatus that creates an association dictionary for each field and uses it, it is necessary for the user to input a search criterion in order to create the association dictionary for each field. For this reason, when the user creates an association dictionary for a field suiting his or her taste, to obtain a highly accurate association dictionary, the user has to input an optimum search criterion indicative of the field. Considering an optimum search criterion like this is extremely difficult for the user. For example, a user who frequently watches information programs covering news, entertainment information, economic/market conditions and the like cannot determine which of “news”, “entertainment”, “economy”, and “information” should be inputted as the search criterion in order to obtain a highly accurate association dictionary suiting his or her taste.
With the conventional association dictionary creation apparatus that creates an association dictionary adapted to the user by automatically changing the association degree by the user selecting an associated word for the search criterion, the user has to input all the search keywords suiting his or her taste and select associated words corresponding to the search keywords until an association dictionary adapted to the user is obtained; thus, the burden imposed on the user until the accuracy is improved is heavy. For example, in the case of an association dictionary in which a plurality of performers' names are stored in association with one performer's name, to improve the accuracy of the association dictionary, the user has to select, for a plurality of performers, a performer's name and a performer's name associated with the selected performer's name stored in the association dictionary; thus, the burden on the user is heavy.